$: ... "' i \ -', ;; """ ' ... ". "p.0: (ÆP- ';i .' $1% . "". t::-&....."... .' ' : {" ."'" . ,.---:"::' ;/ ..:;:;: . " :I t r_"J.:::;1", :>1"J iJ "" L I > '. "{:'t::^ ':<'. .( 1 :,.'... &, . \ : \ ":' " ; \ <. {" i ; t*':- . ..., ', , .. . \ '" 1", , , '$m,'>,/;',':;;, ,';<t w>r J t ... ..." \' , - '"ß ".J" r, .;..--., j,.,. -<1 . . . ... ;:r w, :-,: , " .... . 22 :.:.: -;;. . diplomas and social distinctions, he has learned in three years of power to forget himself somewhat and has gained a rela- tive ease of manner. When in company, he long ago added to his provincial po- liteness the more worldly gesture of kiss- ing the ladies' hands as greeting, though among the non-aristocrats the custom is now usually derided as anti-Nazi. Con- versation excites him. In anything ap- proaching serious talk, his sapphire-blue eyes, which are his only good feature, brighten, glow heavily as if words fanned them. His principal gesture is a shrug of the shoulders. If he's really interested, he is likely to walk up and down the room, and in arguments he becomes violent. Years ago, when young and unsuc- cessful, his rather heavy political con ver- sation was delivered with such complete concentration on his topic that it at- tracted older or intellectual women who had learned patience. He made his worldly début as a thin, neat un- known, in the famous Munich salon of Frau Katherine Heine Hanfstaengl, whose mother was a Sedgwick of New York. For the past .fifteen years Hitler's greatest woman friend has been Frau Victoria von Dirksen, formerly a fash- . ionable hostess in her Margaretenstrasse mansion in Berlin, and now stepmother of the German ambassador at Moscow :1nd. widow of the magnate who helped .: :::::. /-._:-: J:l /t.}t ;.:.:= ;:; ;;": :::;" "' / '7':::: .. j:; [ ' . ::::.:::.... . l_ / .' \ .... r .. \, . \ .'.'\ \"q \ " * . ./' .... ':'., .... \ "." . ; :jJ::>: ..... :: :.1: ::: :: ?# : :..-:.:.:(.::::::=::::: :: :.:.: - - "::.w:.xv """ M' . ((N O this is what we call a crackup." . . to build the Berlin lJ nter grund. It was thc foreign prcs--s. F'ricnds now feel that in her salon that the secret, Frau Her- celibacy is part of Hitler's natural ca- mine Hohenzollern-Hitler meeting took reer. Frau Wagner was an early Nazi place when the question arose of which devotee. She was not rich, but on the should be presented to which-the sec- strength of her name she persuaded ond wife of the ex-Kaiser of the former others to give fortunes to the Party. German Empire to the Nazi Führer Leni Riefenstahl, former cinema star, of Germany's Third Reich, or vice is another well-known German woman versa. (Hitler tactfully kissed the lady's whom Hitler knows. He confided to hand before anyone could introduce her the editing, and worked with her either, and then tactlessly refused her over the cutting, of his 1934 Nazi plea that her exiled husband be allowed. propaganda film, "Der Triumph des easier terms from the land he'd once Willens," which he refused to show ruled.) Frau von Dirksen gave most publicly outside of Germany, since, as of her late husband's fortune to pro- he himself said, "national fervor cannot moting Hitler's career. Their friend- be exported." He stil1 thinks her com- ship has not been interrupted by his petent to handle enthusiasm for home success or by her recent quarrels with consumption, and she will official- his Party. \\Then in Berlin, he stiH ly photograph the forthcoming Berlin loyally takes tea with her every fort- Olympic Games, as she did last sum- night. mer's Nazi Nürnberg Congress. (The Hitler's less wealthy feminine friends latter film was recently shown in Ber- include a small, distinguished gallery lin under the title "Tag der Frei- which anyone could know about and heit.") At the tremendous, opening most of upper-class Germany does. He Shovel Parade of the A rbeitsdienst, shc has been photographed at official func- was not only the sole motion-pièture tions with Frau Winifred Wagner, director, she was also the only woman widow of Richard Wagner's son, Sieg- on the great parade field-one white fried. Having succumbed to Wagner- linen skirt moving freely before fifty- ism and "Lohengrin" at the age of four thousand green-woollen, mechan- twelve, when poor and Austrian, Hit- ical men, one profe sional woman on ler could not, as later leader of Ger- her job, and so rare a sight in mascu- many, resist the meeting with Frau linized Germany today that among Wagner. There was talk of their mar- the quarter-million spectators assem bled, rying, but it was a canard instituted by there wasn't a person who didn't know